When Mikey Babysits Bandit
by emptywalletandarecordcover
Summary: The title says it all. Oneshot.


**_Disclaimer: _**_This is called fiction for a reason. Tis all fake._

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><p>"...she's asleep on the couch, so yeah... You'll stay here until Lindsey and I come back, right? We'll be back around midnight. You can always grab something from the cabinets or order a pizza or something if you're hungry, I left some money on the kitchen table. Oh yeah, and give B a Tylenol every 5 hours, that'll calm her down a little."<p>

"Aye aye, captain."

"Mikey, cut it out – _yeah, I'll be right there! –_ Just take good care of her, okay? You know what to do if there's something wrong, right? The phone's on the side table-"

"Gerard, come on, bro! I'm not a fifteen year old. I know how to babysit. Now go, your wife is getting impatient."

"Thanks, Mikes. You're awesome."

"Like a didn't know already. Have fun at Comic Con! Don't mind bringing some souvenirs for Bandit and me!"

"I'll see what I can do!"

"Bye!"

"Bye, Mikey!"

Bandit woke up to the last part of the conversation. When the front door closed, she shifted on the black leather couch she was laying on to make some room for her uncle to sit. Her feet were suddenly bare, so she groaned. The cold air tickled her feet and caused shivers to run up her body.

"You okay there?" Mikey asked as he walked in to find his niece on the couch, managing a soft smile before taking place on the end of the couch and pulling the blanket back over her feet again. "What happened?"

Bandit sighed. "Woke up sore and kinda fell down the stairs when I went to get a glass of water… my knees gave in." She paused and quietly patted her knees through the blanket. "I scared the shit out of dad when he saw me lying at the foot of the stairs," Bandit said, half chuckling. "He was screaming from upstairs first and then he almost fell himself too trying to get to me."

"Your father has quite a lot of experience with people falling down stairs," Mikey grinned and looked at his own knees before saying, "I guess awkward knees run in the family."

"Yeah, guess so," Bandit said, and yawned audibly. Then, she grabbed the remote control from somewhere next to her on the couch and turned on the television, casually flipping through the channels.

Mikey raised an eyebrow at her. "Shouldn't you go back to sleep or something?"

"Err.. no. I've already slept for ten hours straight last night plus the two hours that I've slept on the couch before you interrupted me with your presence, dear uncle." Bandit flashed a childish, crooked smile at her uncle.

"You've slept twelve hours? Like, seriously?" Mikey asked mockingly, again raising his eyebrows at Bandit.

"Hell yeah. Those Tylenols really knock you out for a few hours. And I have this kind of blindfold thing that apparently reduces headaches."

Mikey looked at the names of the channels as Bandit flipped through them. He saw various programmes he wanted to see, but he kept his mouth shut, and sighed in contentment when Bandit stopped at a channel where an episode of the Batman animated series was playing. They watched it for about an hour, remaining completely silent until the ending credits rolled over the big LED screen. Bandit threw her head back and snorted.

"What time is it?" she asked randomly.

Mikey took out his Blackberry. "Eleven," he replied.

Bandit checked it on the clock above the television and gently nudged Mikey's arm. "_One minute past_ eleven, Mikey."

"Alright then! One fucking minute past eleven. Little smartass."

Bandit smiled.

After a few minutes of silence, Mikey inhaled sharply and took the remote control from Bandit's hands and went to CNN to check the news. There were various things about the politics and Wall Street and stuff, and Bandit didn't really care about it. After a while, Bandit asked again, "What time is it now?"

"Bandit!" Mikey laughed, throwing his head back. "Are you waiting for something?"

"I'm just bored as fuck, just so you know."

"Well, let's go do something, then! Do you have any homework or exercises or something like that? Maybe you can go make them."

"I've gotten no homework, uncle Mikey," Bandit sighed. "Can you hand me the laptop, please? I think I'm going to check my Twitter for once."

"Haven't done that in a while either," Mikey said. He bent forward and reached under the couch to grab the laptop and gave it to Bandit. There was a buzzing sound when the laptop was starting up, then the soft Windows 7 melody. Bandit turned off the laptop's speakers and began typing.

Apparently, she was on Twitter a few minutes later. "Holy shit," she gasped. "Nine-hundred-and-seventy-five tweets with my name in it? In two months? What is wrong with this world?"

"What? That's.. quite a lot," Mikey said, and grabbed his Blackberry again. With much effort, he logged in on Twitter too. "Hmm. I've gotten…" Mikey burst out laughing when he saw how many tweets contained his name. "Two-thousand-three-hundred-and-twenty-eight. _I win_!"

Bandit began scrolling. "What are yours about? Read one out loud!"

That's how Bandit and Mikey spent the afternoon – reading each other's tweets out loud. Most of the tweets were 'thank-you's' and serious questions, but Bandit was surprised to see that quite a lot of Mikey's tweets were about unicorns. And she laughed while her uncle just threw his head back out of frustration. They had laughed both, actually, and then just talked about random things such as Bandit's grades, Mikey's thoughts on the shows he'd played a few weeks ago, and art. A lot of art, especially Bandit's. Bandit had laughed again when she showed Mikey a portrait she'd made of him in the video of The Ghost Of You, because Mikey had gone a little sentimental. He hadn't really cried, but she could just see it in his eyes. He had gone completely silent by the work that looked way too professional to be made by a thirteen year old.

A while later, Bandit apparently had fallen asleep, because she woke up by a loud crack of thunder. Rain clattered against the windows. She was alone on the couch, covered in her blanket. It was completely dark except for when the lightning outside lit up the whole room for a split second, and that made Bandit even more afraid. She was afraid of lightning and thunder, but also of the dark – so this was an awkwardly terrifying situation.

"Mikey?" Bandit called out toward the darkness, expecting an answer. There was none. _Stupid oversized house, _she thought angrily, but yelped and almost jumped off the couch when there was another flash of lightning and a loud crack of thunder a few seconds later.

"Mikeeey!" Bandit yelled again, this time afraid. She stood up from the couch and went to look for him, but another series of thunder and lightning that was incredibly close to the house prevented her from that – she screamed and started running, but she bumped into the table, causing her to fall over and drop on the floor under the window. "MIKEY! MIKEEEY!"

The thunder raged continuously now, and Bandit couldn't have been more afraid. She kept yelling for her uncle until she heard a few yelps, a muffled scream, cursing, and finally quick footsteps. Mikey took the crying girl in his arms and closed his eyes.

He had to admit that he was afraid of thunderstorms too.

"Mikey! Mikey… it's going to hit the house and it's going to be on fire and oh my god we're gonna die-" Bandit screamed again when the thunder became even louder than before. "OH MY GOD IT'S TOO CLOSE MIKEY WE'RE GOING TO DIE OH GOD!" She was completely hysterical.

"Bandit, calm down! We're not going to die, sweetie, don't be silly…" Mikey didn't really know what to say, so he just rubbed his niece's arms until she finally calmed down and fell asleep, covering her ears with her hands.

He didn't know how long it took, but Mikey fell asleep himself too. The sound of the storm wasn't audible anymore.

"Mikes! Bandit! We're home!" Gerard said after opening the front door, carrying two plastic bags full of Comic Con souvenirs with him and still holding his wife's hand. It was ten in the evening, so they came home earlier than expected. Bandit was obviously still up – Gerard was sure that Mikey would let her. When he heard no response from neither of them, he called out louder. "Hey! We're home!" Still nothing to be heard. He put the bags on the counter and kept his hand tightly around Lindsey's while heading toward the living room.

And then Gerard smiled widely.

There, under the window, sat Mikey and Bandit, their cheeks stained with tears and their ears covered. The room was a total mess – the pillows that were supposed to be on the couch were scattered across the room, the table was moved a metre or two, and Bandit's laptop was hanging on the end of the couch, on stand-by.

Lindsey and Gerard had to keep themselves from laughing.

After staring at the two under the window, Lindsey rested her head on Gerard's shoulder and giggled,

"I guess there's been a thunderstorm here."

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><p><em>I wrote this while there was a thunderstorm, yeah, and I thought of this instantly.<em>

_Keep running._

_xo_


End file.
